Comparing Mechanical Properties of Secondary Wall and Cell Corner Middle Lamella in Spruce Wood

Mechanical characterizations of the S2 layers and the cell corner middle lamella in the axial direction were investigated in spruce wood, A mechanical properties microprobe capable of measuring hardness and Young's modulus on a spatially resolved basis similar to that of an electron beam microprobe was used. Hardness of the cell comer middle lamella was found to be almost as high as that of the secondary wall, but the Young's modulus of the cell corner middle lamella was 50% less than that of the S2' The S2 showed constant hardness over its range of Young's modulus, but the cell corner middle lamella exhibited a strong correlation (R2 = 0.55) between hardness and the Young's modulus. Further investigations are needed to directly combine chemical and micromechanical properties and also to investigate the mechanical effects of the high variability of cell corner middle lamella chemistry.